GW McLintock

I was locked out for some time yesterday. More info here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tech...date-bugs.html

-J.

mattp1987

I called the SSA office about an appointment, but they said it was walk-in only for initial enrollment. Both the employee on the phone and the one who helped me after waiting almost 2.5 hours were very nice and helpful, but the wait was frustrating.

We also did GE interview on arrival for my 5 month old at MIA when we got to the States. When the CBP officer scanned all 3 of our passports, he asked if we wanted to finish enrollment for the baby. We were planning to do that anyway, but it was nice that he proactively asked and called an agent from the enrollment office to come meet us because it was the opposite direction from baggage claim and we might have missed it.

Currently in the LH Senator Lounge at IAD. It’s not as nice as the UA Polaris Lounge, but that’s in a different concourse. We’ll be boarding our 748 directly from the lounge soon. Unfortunately we’re downstairs because there are (understandably) no bassinet seats on the upper deck.

jrl767

I've seen those LH 748s at IAD on a fairly regular basis when taking the evening AS IAD-SEA flights ... this is from Aug


interestingly, LH is recycling registrations ... 747-230B D-ABYP was the first Boeing Flight Test jet I was on (Feb 1979, PAE-BFI)

kipper

That's the easiest way to do it. When I tried to schedule mine, initially I scheduled an interview for several months out, at an airport that is a 4-5 hour drive, figuring I could either cancel or reschedule. I kept checking a few times/week, and was eventually able to snag an appointment at PIT. It wasn't at the most convenient time, but it was much closer. The instructions they sent me a few days before included a note that said something like, "If you have to cancel this appointment, DO NOT CANCEL. RESCHEDULE, and take any open appointment that is several months out, at any airport you can. You can then keep checking and trying to reschedule for this location."

In happy news, on next Tuesday, I'll be one step closer to being free!!!! Not quite legally free yet, but one step closer!!! Also, before the end of the year, I get my firearms back from the exhole. I've missed them. Guess I need to place a Galco order soon.

ATOBTTR

Exciting win over Iran in the WC today. ⚽️ I watched on my phone as we had an All-Call at the office that ended right before the match kicked off so I couldn’t get home in time to watch/listen on my regular tv while teleworking from the house. Quite a few other people around the office were doing the same.

That’s the bird I flew to DEL from FRA back in May.

wakesetter93

I love seeing the 747-8's in person.

GW McLintock

Blah. I was supposed to go to a happy hour in the city tonight, but that's clearly not happening.

-J.

beachmouse

We were lucky with GE appointments- I think Mobile, Alabama is an option because of the Airbus plant or something, and they were only a two hour drive away and had appointments pretty wide open compared to anywhere else I’ve looked. The only reason why it took us about two months from conditional approval to interview is that it was like Tuesdays and Thursdays only for interviews and it was way easier to schedule after the perfesser had finished up spring semester.

kipper

I considered flying to Memphis for mine in large part because I could get good BBQ while there.

navi_jen

Hey, I'm back. Insert Tom Hanks Forrest Gump wave meme here

I flew to JFK to do my GE. Last minute opening....in and out in like 10 minutes. It was beau-ti-ful.

Congrats Kipper on the good news.

Thanks JRL on the flight info. Still need to figure out vacay plans....exacerbated by the fact that I spent waaaay too much money buying house (and girly girl) gifts over the weekend. I really should wrap them and put them under the tree. Remind myself it's a reward for all the hard work I've put into the house this year. Merry early Xmas to me, I guess

fsuj25

It’s great that you were able to reschedule to January, my mother has been having a very hard time finding appointment availability here.

fsuj25

Good to know about the SSA offices. Maybe I’ll do what I did in Atlanta a few years ago and go on New Year’s Eve or the 30th, whichever the last federal work day of the year is. I was ready with books and IPad but only had to wait 30 minutes.

While I like my idea of another intl trip to do the renewal interview I hadn’t thought about looking in multiple cities and rescheduling to an open appointment around work trips or other domestic trips may be easier.

ETA: how did the baby do in the interview? Was he nervous going in? Hopefully they didn’t grill him too much! 😂

Zorak

well 5 years later I finally made it to Kanpai near LAX. It's pretty good! And has a large, diverse menu, so looking forward to repeat visits.

kipper

Thanks. I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have a bottle of champagne selected, and will probably buy that once I know things have been filed.

SuperG1955

In case anyone's wondering - I haven't gone bonkers. I was trying to enter a problem eport on FT and the final screen had a Captcha, which like everything else on FT is scerwed up and wouldn't process properly. The system requested that I enter 5 characters with no place to do it ad no menton of what they were. So - I entered 5 characters in a post that I wasn't able to get to process in the Lounge thread and of course, it processed.

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